The phone doesn’t stop ringing as the tension begins to build on whether or not we will become the saviors of our neighborhood. We’ve yet to hear a response from our bid to buy The Sinking Houses. Tomorrow is the deadline. I’m not sure why the delay, but God’s timing is perfect. (Maybe it has to do with the fact the Norwegian interest rates dropped today by 1.75%?)
We actually got rain today – something we haven’t seen in ages. It was refreshing! But having cloud cover does make the days darker and seem much shorter. We didn’t get any kind of light in the sky until 10:30 and it was completely black again by about 2:30 so the clear skies help the days seem longer anyway. I guess they put Christmas at the right time of the year as it provides such a good distraction from the shorter days. There is so much to do that being outside really isn’t a priority.
My Norsk class has dwindled quite a bit now that most students are traveling to their home countries for Christmas. Today we just had six in class, which was too bad because we had a little party with some other classes on our floor. We all brought some finger food and played charades. We also had students (including me) read poems in our native tongue. Since I knew most everyone understands English, I wanted to read Luke chapter 2 in the Bible, but my teacher said we had to read a love poem. I found the words to my favorite Christmas song “Mary Did You Know” and read that. It got quite the response. I was a little nervous reading it since half the students at the party were Muslim men, but the ones that weren’t, really liked it. I’m reading it again at the all school party on Friday. I also made fudge to bring, but it didn’t turn out quite right. I can’t get marshmallow creme here so I used marshmallows, but not enough of them so the fudge is crumbly, but it tastes OK. When I set out to do more Christmas baking I also discovered I can’t get molasses or mint extract here. Oh well.
At Kaleb’s school it was “Nisse” day today. All the kids were allowed to dress up like “Nisse” (the Norwegian Santa). They sell little costumes in all the stores for the children, as it’s very popular for the girls to wear little Mrs. Claus dresses and the boys to wear the Santa suit. They come in all sizes. Kaleb just donned a Santa hat (that’s about 5 feet long) and they all ate “Nissegrøt” for lunch. The teachers had made “Risgrøt” and renamed it for the day. (Risgrøt is just Arborio rice cooked in milk to make a rice porridge that all the kids love to eat.) Kaleb ate three bowls full.
Tobias came over tonight after Kaleb finished his homework. They played a while with their Nintendos but fortunately, that got old. We decided to do a taste test for three types of “Jul Brus” (Christmas pop) I bought at the store. Turns out we all liked Tobias’ long-standing favorite brand as well. The number of products available now that are made JUST for Christmastime is overwhelming. Every company that makes any kind of food products here in Norway makes something special just for Christmas. I guess that’s part of why so much emphasis is on the food – because everyone waits all year to get that special thing – whatever it may be. Today at the store I saw all kinds of Jul polses, Jul bread, Jul cookies, Jul jam, Jul beer and Jul nuts. Some of it I wouldn’t taste in a million years, but I’m already hooked on the Jul bread (with cardamon) and we really did like that special Jul pop (but we normally don’t drink pop anyway). I’m currently munching on some yummy Jul cookies I hadn’t tried before and I’ve nearly polished off the whole bag of them. No need for Christmas baking when all these little delicacies come pre-packaged.
I bought a Gingerbread house kit at the store, so Tobias and Kaleb spent the evening decorating it (they aren’t quite done yet). We are so used to the Costco kit that comes with icing and candies, so I was caught off-guard when this kit just included the gingerbread house parts and nothing else. Fortunately we had a few things around that worked as decorations. It turned into more of an engineering project for the yard around the house than a house decorating project, but they had fun. At least that’s one more tradition we have back home that we are able to do here and check off the list.
Kory sat home today waiting by the phone and dreaming of buying these houses. He also worked on a Norwegian test he is going to give Kaleb and I on Christmas Day. We will have a panel of judges and the one who speaks the best Norwegian by then gets 1,000 kroner (less than $200). I’m quite confident I can kick his butt, so no need to do any extra studying, but the deck is stacked against me, so I'm sure I won't win no matter what.
We actually got rain today – something we haven’t seen in ages. It was refreshing! But having cloud cover does make the days darker and seem much shorter. We didn’t get any kind of light in the sky until 10:30 and it was completely black again by about 2:30 so the clear skies help the days seem longer anyway. I guess they put Christmas at the right time of the year as it provides such a good distraction from the shorter days. There is so much to do that being outside really isn’t a priority.
My Norsk class has dwindled quite a bit now that most students are traveling to their home countries for Christmas. Today we just had six in class, which was too bad because we had a little party with some other classes on our floor. We all brought some finger food and played charades. We also had students (including me) read poems in our native tongue. Since I knew most everyone understands English, I wanted to read Luke chapter 2 in the Bible, but my teacher said we had to read a love poem. I found the words to my favorite Christmas song “Mary Did You Know” and read that. It got quite the response. I was a little nervous reading it since half the students at the party were Muslim men, but the ones that weren’t, really liked it. I’m reading it again at the all school party on Friday. I also made fudge to bring, but it didn’t turn out quite right. I can’t get marshmallow creme here so I used marshmallows, but not enough of them so the fudge is crumbly, but it tastes OK. When I set out to do more Christmas baking I also discovered I can’t get molasses or mint extract here. Oh well.
At Kaleb’s school it was “Nisse” day today. All the kids were allowed to dress up like “Nisse” (the Norwegian Santa). They sell little costumes in all the stores for the children, as it’s very popular for the girls to wear little Mrs. Claus dresses and the boys to wear the Santa suit. They come in all sizes. Kaleb just donned a Santa hat (that’s about 5 feet long) and they all ate “Nissegrøt” for lunch. The teachers had made “Risgrøt” and renamed it for the day. (Risgrøt is just Arborio rice cooked in milk to make a rice porridge that all the kids love to eat.) Kaleb ate three bowls full.
Tobias came over tonight after Kaleb finished his homework. They played a while with their Nintendos but fortunately, that got old. We decided to do a taste test for three types of “Jul Brus” (Christmas pop) I bought at the store. Turns out we all liked Tobias’ long-standing favorite brand as well. The number of products available now that are made JUST for Christmastime is overwhelming. Every company that makes any kind of food products here in Norway makes something special just for Christmas. I guess that’s part of why so much emphasis is on the food – because everyone waits all year to get that special thing – whatever it may be. Today at the store I saw all kinds of Jul polses, Jul bread, Jul cookies, Jul jam, Jul beer and Jul nuts. Some of it I wouldn’t taste in a million years, but I’m already hooked on the Jul bread (with cardamon) and we really did like that special Jul pop (but we normally don’t drink pop anyway). I’m currently munching on some yummy Jul cookies I hadn’t tried before and I’ve nearly polished off the whole bag of them. No need for Christmas baking when all these little delicacies come pre-packaged.
I bought a Gingerbread house kit at the store, so Tobias and Kaleb spent the evening decorating it (they aren’t quite done yet). We are so used to the Costco kit that comes with icing and candies, so I was caught off-guard when this kit just included the gingerbread house parts and nothing else. Fortunately we had a few things around that worked as decorations. It turned into more of an engineering project for the yard around the house than a house decorating project, but they had fun. At least that’s one more tradition we have back home that we are able to do here and check off the list.
Kory sat home today waiting by the phone and dreaming of buying these houses. He also worked on a Norwegian test he is going to give Kaleb and I on Christmas Day. We will have a panel of judges and the one who speaks the best Norwegian by then gets 1,000 kroner (less than $200). I’m quite confident I can kick his butt, so no need to do any extra studying, but the deck is stacked against me, so I'm sure I won't win no matter what.
